As the Capital of Silicon Valley, San José is the “center of the universe” for innovation and disruptive technologies powered by the Internet economy.
The San José metro area is the most connected region in the United States according to the 2015 American Communities Survey. That same year, Bloomberg cited San José as America’s richest city, based on its high median income.
San José, however, is very much a tale of two cities with significant inequality for income and connectedness.
San José’s income inequality gap is one of the largest in the nation, ranking 22nd out of 19,500 cities in 2015. This gap continues to widen according to a December 2016 report issued by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Despite San José being the Capital of Silicon Valley, more than 12% of our households have no household internet access; in the richest city in the United States, more than 40% of our residents with incomes under $20,000 have no household internet access. This represents 100,000 people, a significant digital divide that cannot be overlooked, and one the City of San José is actively taking steps to reduce.
The key driver that influences the digital divide is affordability. Given San José’s income inequality, not only have people become lost in the statistics — they have lost practical opportunities to participate in this intensely connected world for learning, jobs, public and commercial services, and civic engagement.
Continue reading at Meeting of the Minds
Originally written by Dolan Beckel